It was a case of life imitating art - or at least the hit film Snakes On A Plane - after a 10-foot python tried to get onto a packed flight over Australia.

Passengers spotted the snake clinging onto the wing of the plane
20 minutes into the journey from the Australian city of Cairns to
Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea.

The snake repeatedly tried to pull itself back into the shelter
of the wing but could not battle the 250mph wind speed and outside
temperatures of minus 12 degrees.

Despite being whipped against the plane, the hardy reptile held
on for the entire 1 hour 50 minute Qantas flight but was found to
have died by the time the flight had landed.

Passenger Robert Weber, a website designer in Cairns, said: "The
people at the front were oblivious to what was going on but the
passengers at the back were all totally focused on the snake and
how it might have got on to the aircraft.

"There was no panic. At no time did anyone stop to consider that
there might be others on board."

Paul Cousins, president of the Australian Licensed Aircraft
Engineers Association, said: "It appears that the snake
initially crawled up inside the landing bay, maybe housed himself
in there, and then crawled into the trailing ledge flap
assembly."

Scrub pythons are Australia’s longest snakes. They feed on
rodents and often conceal themselves in enclosed space to ambush
their prey.